Women's College Rejects Transgender Student

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Smith College, an all-female liberal arts school in Northampton, MA, opened its doors to a group of knowledge-thirsty young women in 1875. Smith's founders doubtfully could have predicted that 138 years later, the admissions board would wind up in the press for their rejection of Calliope Wong, a male-to-female transgender applicant. Wong's rejection letter, signed by Smith College's Dean of Admission Debra Shaver, thanked Wong for her application, but stated, "Smith is a women's college, which means that undergraduate applicants must be female at the time of admission." The problem for Wong is that in her home state of Connecticut, she is not legally considered female.

Smith College does welcome transgender students. However, applicants must be legally female at the time of admission, which, for Wong, means that she would have to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Most states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, require proof in the form of a court order or surgeon's letter that the individual's sex has been surgically changed. Although Wong has identified as female for years, her gender status is inconsequential to admissions at Smith.

In reaction to her rejection, Wong wrote on her blog that she felt betrayed by Dean Shaver, who had allegedly implied over the summer that her application would get a fair evaluation. Wong told the Huffington Post that she doesn't plan to appeal Smith's decision, but she certainly isn't giving up on her mission of gaining equal rights for transgender people. "I do this for the transfolk after me," Wong said, "so that they might inherit better policies and a more just system of education.